To facilitate the life of lady customers, a Chinese shopping mall decided to reserve several 30 centimetres wider parking lots marked in pink with the indication: “Respectfully reserved for women”. The city hall of Seoul launched a similar enterprise – the initiative is a part of a more global project to make the South Korean […]
International Olympic Committee and FIFA attacked at UN General Assembly
UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai today called on international sports bodies, including FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), to respect universally recognized human rights at their events, especially the right to peaceful assembly. Maina Kiai condemned “private multilateral bodies” and singled out Switzerland-based IOC and FIFA in a speech to the UN General Assembly. […]
Geneva greening initiative takes root
In coming weeks, the city of Geneva will be planting 250 trees as part of a greater “greening” initiative launched in 2012, according to the Tribune de Genève. Pâquis and Eaux-Vives are being targeted, as they have been identified as neighbourhoods in dire need of vegetation. The northern tip of Plainpalais also will receive a […]
Back to the future
100 years have passed and the history of the 20th century’s first genocide is beginning to weigh heavily. Every year on 24 April, Armenians the world over commemorate the 1915 Armenian genocide at the hand of the Turks. This year is the 100th anniversary of this tragedy. In order to mark the occasion, the Armenian […]
Switzerland calls for global death penalty ban
Earlier this month, Swiss President Didier Burkhalter joined 11 foreign ministers around the world in a joint declaration in favour of abolishing the death penalty. “The death penalty is incompatible with human rights,” the Swiss government said in a statement last week. While Switzerland abolished the death penalty from its federal criminal law in 1942, […]
Cause Direct: Not your average crowd-funding site
Dozens of people gathered last week at Geneva’s Impact Hub to celebrate the launch of one of Switzerland’s newest non-profit organizations: Cause Direct, an online platform that serves to connect certified NGOs worldwide with interested funders and investors. The concept behind the site isn’t a novelty. Thousands of people around the globe use websites such […]
UDC seeks to block Islamic Centre
The right-wing Swiss People’s Party (UDC) of Fribourg is gathering signatures for a referendum to oppose an Islamic studies center at the University of Fribourg. The move comes at a time when reaching out to Muslim communities seems more important than ever. That is certainly the opinion of Antonio Loprieno of the University of Basel, […]
The Human Brain Project: a very expensive headache
On Reflection is an occasional column contributed by a reader. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily shared or supported in any way by Le News. By now, most of us have heard of the Human Brain Project, whose aim is to simulate the complete human brain using supercomputers. The […]
Editorial comment: Can you be a good Swiss?
In an article highlighted last week by SwissInfo, a Swiss government-funded information service, a new survey on what is a Swiss has been issued by a group of artists, historians and sociologists fifty years after a controversially censored ‘Gulliver’ questionnaire was carried out during the Swiss National Exhibition in Lausanne in 1964. Basically, the landmark […]
UDC open to immigration compromise
Christophe Blocher, vice-president of Switzerland’s right-wing UDC party, has indicated that he is prepared to compromise on the controversial 9 February, 2014, referendum that demands quotas on mass immigration from Europe. In an interview last Sunday with the German-language SonntagsZeitung, the Zurich politician said that he was open to exploring more subtle approaches, such as […]